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Home Movies

Get Away From My Mom

Season 1, Episode 1, Aired 4/26/99

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Episode Summary

Brendon is thoroughly disgusted when Coach McGuirk dates his mother.

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Cast & Crew

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Paula Poundstone

Paula Small (1999)
H. Jon Benjamin

Jason Penopolis, Coach John McGuirk, Perry, Various
Brendon Small

Brendon Small, Dwayne, Walter, Ken & Junior Addleburg, Various

Fan Episode Reviews (1)

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I love this Episode!

9.8

"Superb"

By kirby40, Sep 28, 2010 Report Abuse

Episode 101 - Get Away From My Mom

Original Airdate: April 26th, 1999

Cast:
Brendon Small Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins Melissa Bardin Galsky
Coach Jon McGuirk H. Jon Benjamin
Paula Small Paula Poundstone
Josie Small Loren Bouchard
Erik Robbins Jonathan Katz

Synopsis: Brendon is horrified to find out that Paula is going out on a date with McGuirk. Meanwhile, Brendon, Jason and Melissa make "The Dark Side of the Law" and its sequel.

History:
This is the first episode of Home Movies.
This episode is one of "The UPN 5". Therefore, it has Paula Poundstone as Paula and is 100% retroscripted.
This is one of two episodes to have an opening (Brendon runs around the house, and stops at Paula, who has his camera)
Brendon, Jason, Melissa, McGuirk, Paula, Josie and Erik are introduced in this episode. The referee character is introduced as well. You can also see the Shannon character as one of the soccer players, but he is not mentioned.
Tom Snyder (owner of Soup2Nuts) helped with writing on this episode.
This episode was not mapped in the slightest; the plot developed through improvisation between the actors

Lawn Gnomes:
This is one of the few episodes without any Lawn Gnomes (I know of).

Brendon's Filmography:
"The Dark Side of the Law" - In a world gone mad, there stands one cop fighting against evil and injustice.
"The Dark Side of the Law II" - You thought Dark Side of the Law was the last of the films, with that title. You were wrong! Coming to theaters, Dark Side of the Law II! He thought he was above the law, he was wrong! Academy Award Nominee Brendon Small gives his most paralyzing performance. This film is not yet rated.

The Movie-Episode Connection:
Since this is the pilot episode, the movie exists simply so that we can see that Brendon makes movies with his friends. There's no real connection to the story.

The Plotline Connection: (TheJazzFighter)
Since the plots revolve around each other, Paula dates McGuirk and Brendon doesn't like this at all, there isn't really a connection.

Cool Random Observations & Facts:
McGuirk's tattoos of the cow/banana have appeared numerous times throughout the series.
Brendon's attitude towards McGuirk ("big fat crappy Irish guy", "McGuirk the jerk") is totally out of character with the rest of the series.
You know how Erik goes "Did that guy just give me the finger?" He did.
This is one of the few episodes of Home Movies with toilet humor (mostly from Jason).
McGuirk has a "Soccer Rules!" and "Soccer: Hardcore!" poster in his office.
There is a weird version of Perry (with blonde hair) on the soccer field.

Stupid Observations & Facts:
Josie plays on a soccer ball during the game.

Movie & Other References:
The red wire/blue wire angle from "Dark Side of the Law" is one of the classic movie clichs.

End Credits: "Season One Theme"

Reviews: WARNING: Spoilers

Superloud: Is it just me, or did some parts of this episode seem to move really quickly compared to other parts? Brendon and McGuirk's voices seemed a little bit higher than they are now, and Paula Poundstone as Brendon's mom was just really had to get used to. This episode wasn't all that funny, but I've seen a few of the later season one episodes, so I'm glad it picks up after this slow start.

Condiment King: Three words I didn't like from this episode: 'McGuirk the Jerk'. All the characters were very out of character in this episode, but that comes to be expected from a pilot episode. Everyone was somewhat out of character in this and even though I like Paula, Paula Poundstone's Paula wasn't great, and Paula was overly used in this episode, as well as others in 'The UPN 5'. Coach McGuirk seemed very tame and not very opinionated at all in the episode. I'm glad we see the more 'loud and proud' McGuirk in today's Cartoon Network episodes.
As for the episode itself, put into any other season, it would have sucked beyond words. Being the pilot gives it some grace, and viewing it as such adds to the episode. The premise of Paula actually going out with McGuirk seems a bit ill-concieved and I chalk that up to Paula under stress or something. Brendon seemed overly hostile to the fact of Paula dating, which I can understand that most kids are, but Brendon and his mom have a special kind of bond that goes beyond mother/son and this just didn't click with me, as well as the whole Brendon acting like a jerk to everyone (Getting mad as Paula talks, sarcasm after Erik's playing). By the way, what was up with Jason in this episode? Good lord, thank goodness this isn't the Jason of today.
Erik was a plus in this episode, and I'd like to seem more of him like in this episode. And of course, nice innuendo at the end between Paula and Erik.
Grade: B-

StrangerAtaru: Once upon a time, an animated TV show came to a network that was infamous for animated TV shows. That network was UPN, and the show was "Home Movies". Needless to say, it didn't last too long between the two of them. This was the first product of the era known as the "UPN 5", the beginning of the series where things weren't really worked out as well as they became later, especially once it was transplanted to Cartoon Network. As a pilot, there are some rather good moments, but it is muddled by situations and plotlines that never really went anywhere. The central situation in this episode involves Paula (as in Paula Poundstone, the first voice of the mother) dating Coach McGurk, the soccer coach of Paula's son Brendon, and of course Brendon's reactions to the whole thing. As we all know later, Brendon and McGurk see each other as better friends than rivals, with Brendon as the "stupid kid" and McGurk as the grumpy soccer coach who knows a lot, but not in what matters. But here, it seems more like a love/hate relationship between the two, especially with Brendon coining the term which perfectly personifies the character: "McGurk the Jerk". One of the strongest of scenes between the two involves the meeting when McGurk arrives on the date with Paula where Brendon tries to give him unneeded advise involving the shirt he was wearing and tries to call him "dad" jokingly only to get caught up with Paula showing up. This pretty much is one of the first good scenes of many throughout the entire series, although I liked the outburst Brendon has at the end of the first act trying to warn the kids of McGurk wanting to steal their moms. (but that is more of a Brendon alone scene) As for the actual scenes between Paula and McGurk, they never really seemed to go anywhere to me. Sure they tried to establish a relation between the two, but the scenes never really did anything to me. Of course, as we all know Paula in these episodes seems like a more assertive go-getter who does her own thing opposed to the more sane, motherly type later on. (you can pretty much see it in the fact that she runs around all the time in these episodes in sweats)

Outside of the main plotline here, we have a lot of little weird stuff going on, some of which works and others that, well, still need work. One of the best things about the episode is the introduction of the movies with one of the most amateurish of works: "The Dark Side of the Law" (and it's sequel, the appropriately named "Dark Side of the Law II" ) Seeing how sophisticated and seemingly professional the movies slowly become, it is fun watching a time when there was a lot of running around and a costume in Brendon's movie is just wearing a different hat than another character! The actual scene where the movie was being made showed how ridiculous the movies were even back then (including the fact that they were in France "because that was where stuff happened" ) Another thing that we have to realize about this era was the little phenominon known as retroscripting, where the characters pretty much played off each other in an improvisional way. But this lead to some not so good stuff, most infamously the "Duck Talk" sequence with Erik, Brendon and Melissa. (it seemed rather obvious that Melissa was an important character back then, while Jason...we'll get to him) The whole thing was just wrong in execution and never really went anywhere or was that funny. That doesn't mean Erik is such a bad character: I did somewhat like his conversation with Paula towards the end, which while a little dry had the infamous violin solo. ("Play Freebird!" ) Then, of course, there is Jason: it obviously seems from this and the next episode that Jason was pretty much there as the "weird gross-out character" opposed to just the weird, quirky character he becomes later on. The whole snot thing was pretty much there in order to make him like someone from South Park was in the series. (of course, there was also UPN overadvertising that aspect in their original run that also harmed it, considering that South Park was "the latest thing" when the show started) Overall, this episode shows the potential that HM had from the very beginning, but had a long way to go to truely master it.

One last note: No I am not going to mention the whole Squigglevision aspect of the early episodes. This was the style of Soup2Nuts with Dr. Katz and many of their other earlier shows and only recently switched to Flash animation. Squigglevision did make things seem more raw, but it didn't impact much except for how the characters were drawn.

The Landstander: I've seen this episode a couple of times, and every time I saw it, I didn't like it. Maybe it was the fact I was watching it "live", or because I was slightly tired, but I liked it a lot more when I saw it yesterday. Alot of people bash the first season, however it had a certain (for lack of a better word) charm that wasn't in season 2 or 3.

First off, as a pilot for a new TV show, this episode wasn't that good. It barely managed to include Melissa and Jason in the episode, and Melissa was mostly with her father. McGuirk and Brendon seemed way off in this episode (compared to their relationship as of the new episodes) such as Brendon calling him "McGuirk the jerk". Everything in this episode seemed a little off.

The positives in this episode included McGuirk talking to the soccer team (something he hasn't done much in the new episodes) Brendon staying on the phone with Paula and McGuirk and McGuirk's tattoos. The negatives included the infamous Jason snot scene (this was the scene that got associated with the show back in the UPN days, if I remember correct), and a lack of any Brendon, Jason and Melissa moments. Also, what was with that "Duck Talk" sequence? I thought that was just dumb.

Rating: C+
Positives: McGuirk on the soccer field, Retroscripting, the tattoo bit, The Dark Side of the Law Trailer
Negatives: Duck Talk, Gross-Out Jason Humor, Lack of Brendon Jason and Melissa, Paula on the phone (I'm glad they stopped doing this), Off Characterization

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- It appears that while McGuirk and Paula are talking on the phone, McGuirk is drawing a picture of Paula with hearts around the drawing. Edit
- This was originally supposed to be Coach McGuirk's only big apperance in the show, but H. Jon Benjamin and Brendon Small played off each other so well while recording, they wrote McGuirk into the series at large. Edit
- Perry has blonde hair in this episode (the pilot). This is the only time Perry is ever shown as a blonde, as opposed to his usual orange hair. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- This is the only UPN-produced episode to feature Erik. Edit
- Tom Snyder (owner of Soup2Nuts) helped with writing on this episode. Edit
- This episode was not mapped in the slightest; the plot developed through improvisation between the actors. Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- Paula: I like to go out with a chip on my shoulder. Like 'How dare he ask me out?' Edit
- Brendon: I'm not playing, though. I'm sitting in the sandbox. This is where I come to reflect on things. Edit
- Coach: It's like going to a market because I got drunk one night. Don't live like me, Brendon, play soccer. Edit
Allusions
ADD ALLUSIONS
- Mission: Impossible: The music being heard during the red wire/blue wire scene in Dark Side of the Law sounds similar to the TV show/movie's theme. Edit
- ...And Justice for All: After Brendin gets hurt on the field, he says 'This whole sport's out of order!' This is a tribute to Al Pacino's 'This whole court's out of ofder!' Edit
- Red/Blue Wire: The Red or Blue wire cliche' is an old classic started by the movie Dark Side of the Law. Edit